--- title: "4 Human existence Quotes By Thomas Ligotti" description: "4 Human existence quotes by Thomas Ligotti. Plus more from Thomas Ligotti and more Human existence sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-hum_1044462.png" --- > [“philosopher in question made much of human existence as a tragedy that need not have been were it not for the intervention…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-human-existence-as-a-tragedy/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-hum_1044462.png) > [“What meaning our lives may seem to have is the work of a relatively well-constituted emotional system. As consciousness gives us the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have-is-the-work-of-a-relatively/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed8/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have_1057726.jpg) > [“This is the great lesson the depressive learns: Nothing in the world is inherently compelling. Whatever may be really “out there” cannot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/this-is-the-great-lesson-the-depressive-learns-nothing-in-the-world/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/thomas-ligotti-2073_depression_this-is-the-great-lesson-the-depressive_2049521.jpg) > [But even if ego-death is regarded as the optimum model for human existence, one of liberation from ourselves, it still remains a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/but-even-if-ego-death-is-regarded-as-the-optimum-model-for-human/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/823/thomas-ligotti-2073_able_but-even-if-ego-death-is-regarded-as-the_2872032.jpg) ## Other authors on Human existence - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b009/author-erich-fromm-33632.jpg) Erich Fromm 10 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/erich-fromm/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-viktor-e-frankl-93688.jpg) Viktor E. Frankl 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/viktor-e-frankl/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-milan-kundera-68231.jpg) Milan Kundera 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/milan-kundera/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-hannah-arendt-40230.jpg) Hannah Arendt 9 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/hannah-arendt/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b006/author-carl-jung-20958.jpg) Carl Jung 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/carl-jung/) ## More by Thomas Ligotti > [“Subsequently there ensues an epoch of complex, proliferating intrigues and conspiracies among the ranks of double agents, whose agendas become so densely intertwined that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/subsequently-there-ensues-an-epoch-of-complex-proliferating-intrigues/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The point that in the absence of birth nobody exists who can be deprived of happiness is terribly conspicuous. For optimists, this fact plays…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-point-that-in-the-absence-of-birth-nobody-exists-who-can-be/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The worst fear of the race yes, the world suddenly transformed into a senseless nightmare, horrible dissolution of things. Nothing compares, even oblivion is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-worst-fear-of-the-race-yes-the-world-suddenly-transformed-into-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“In supernatural horror stories, however, magical thinking is a completely different matter. Those characters contending with what seems to be the work of magic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/in-supernatural-horror-stories-however-magical-thinking-is-a/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“When you are alone in the wilderness, opinions or beliefs of any kind are dropped as the absurd accoutrements they are. But after being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/when-you-are-alone-in-the-wilderness-opinions-or-beliefs-of-any-kind/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/there-seems-to-be-an-inborn-drive-in-all-human-beings-not-to-live-in/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [Nature proceeds by blunders; that is its way. It is also ours. So if we have blundered by regarding consciousness as a blunder, why…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/nature-proceeds-by-blunders-that-is-its-way-it-is-also-ours-so-if-we/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [We live in a permanent state of bad faith, a mutual representation of ourselves to one another for the sake of remaining sane and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/we-live-in-a-permanent-state-of-bad-faith-a-mutual-representation-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The darkness of the grotesque is an immortal enigma: in all legends of the dead, in all the tales of creatures of the night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-darkness-of-the-grotesque-is-an-immortal-enigma-in-all-legends-of/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“If truth is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/if-truth-is-what-you-seek-then-the-examined-life-will-only-take-you/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The dismembered limbs of dolls and puppets are strewn about everywhere. Posters, signs, billboards, and leaflets of various sorts are scattered around like playing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-dismembered-limbs-of-dolls-and-puppets-are-strewn-about/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“As I drifted along with my bodiless invisibility, I felt myself more and more becoming an empty, floating shape, seeing without being seen and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/as-i-drifted-along-with-my-bodiless-invisibility-i-felt-myself-more/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“The lessons in measurement of cloacal forces. Time as a flow of sewage. The excrement of space, scatology of creation. The voiding of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/the-lessons-in-measurement-of-cloacal-forces-time-as-a-flow-of-sewage/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/and-the-worst-possible-thing-we-could-know-worse-than-knowing-of-our/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) > [“Only catatonics and coma patients can persevere in a dignified withdrawal from life’s rattle and hum. Without a “yes” in our hearts, nothing would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/only-catatonics-and-coma-patients-can-persevere-in-a-dignified/) [Thomas Ligotti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-ligotti/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-existence/thomas-ligotti/#itemlist", "name": "4 Human existence Quotes By Thomas Ligotti", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“philosopher in question made much of human existence as a tragedy that need not have been were it not for the intervention in our lives of a single, calamitous event: the evolution of consciousness—”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Ligotti" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-human-existence-as-a-tragedy/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-hum_1044462.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-hum_1044462.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_philosopher-in-question-made-much-of-hum_1044462.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“philosopher in question made much of human existence as a tragedy that need not have been were it not for…” — Thomas Ligotti", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What meaning our lives may seem to have is the work of a relatively well-constituted emotional system. As consciousness gives us the sense of being persons, our psychophysiology is responsible for making us into personalities who believe the existential game to be worth playing. We may have memories that are unlike those of anyone else, but without the proper emotions to liven those memories they might as well reside in a computer file as disconnected bits of data that never unite into a tailor-made individual for whom things seem to mean something. You can conceptualize that your life has meaning, but if you do not feel that meaning then your conceptualization is meaningless and you are nobody. The only matters of weight in our lives are colored by rainbows or auroras of regulated emotion which give one a sense of that “old self.” But a major depression causes your emotions to evaporate, reducing you to a shell of a person standing alone in a drab landscape. Emotions are the substrate for the illusion of being a somebody among somebodies as well as for the substance we see, or think we see, in the world. Not knowing this ground-level truth of human existence is the equivalent of knowing nothing at all.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Ligotti" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-ligotti/what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have-is-the-work-of-a-relatively/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed8/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have_1057726.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed8/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have_1057726.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed8/thomas-ligotti-2073_human-existence_what-meaning-our-lives-may-seem-to-have_1057726.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What meaning our lives may seem to have is the work of a relatively well-constituted emotional system. As…” — Thomas Ligotti", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“This is the great lesson the depressive learns: Nothing in the world is inherently compelling. Whatever may be really “out there” cannot project itself as an affective experience. It is all a vacuous affair with only a chemical prestige. Nothing is either good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or anything else except that it is made so by laboratories inside us producing the emotions on which we live. And to live on our emotions is to live arbitrarily, inaccurately—imparting meaning to what has none of its own. Yet what other way is there to live? Without the ever-clanking machinery of emotion, everything would come to a standstill. There would be nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to be, and no one to know. The alternatives are clear: to live falsely as pawns of affect, or to live factually as depressives, or as individuals who know what is known to the depressive. How advantageous that we are not coerced into choosing one or the other, neither choice being excellent. One look at human existence is proof enough that our species will not be released from the stranglehold of emotionalism that anchors it to hallucinations. 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